Leaving the Slum: International Collaborative Design Initiatives to Shape Capabilities During Resettlement

In Kenya, rapid urbanization tends to exclude the poor from access to adequate housing in the cities. Thus, many poor hope to afford a home on peri-urban land by joining housing cooperatives. The Kaza Mwendo Housing Cooperative in Nairobi is a group of Kibera slum residents planning to resettle outside the capital. This case embodies a bottom-up resettlement process presenting huge challenges: How are the foundations of a new settlement conceived? Can slum replication be avoided? The Kaza Mwendo Low-Cost Housing Project started in 2021 as an international academic workshop on early-stage design for relocation. The participatory design with the community shed light on design concepts necessary to negotiate a balance between the risks and opportunities of displacement. How can design steer resettlement toward human development and well-being? How to conceive sustainable low-cost housing? We appeal to the capability approach that values human development in well-being achievement through the freedom to choose and do. Despite a weak community representation, the initiative had important results: (1) Participatory planning and design collectively defined problem scenarios by harnessing knowledge and raising awareness; and (2) Taking ownership of their projects, the cooperative representatives met the authorities, started discussing housing typologies, and participated in public events.